Slaying the perfectionism dragon

July 22, 2014 by
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A short article on the Entrepreneur.com website caught my attention. In “Start Before You’re Ready, Really,” the author urges us to launch our new business, project or idea before we are, or it is ready.

You can set up a quick Facebook page instead of a website, or a simple (ugly) web page just to get something “out there”. Run the idea up the digital flagpole and see who salutes it.

The author started her new business with just one strategic alliance partner (referral source), who sent her enough business to help her get her business off the ground. Had she waited until she had ten or twelve referral sources, she may still be waiting.

No matter what you do, you can improve it later. Even if you do wait before you launch, there will always be things to improve. So why wait?

Get something out there now and fix or improve it later.

I salute this idea. Hard as it is to show your ideas before they are fully formed, edited, vetted, and groomed, you must. If you wait, you’ll never be ready. In your lifetime, you will produce only a fraction of what you could.

I’ve done this many times. I’ve put up terrible web pages. Announced businesses and books when they were merely ideas. Advertised courses before I was finished writing them.

Some of my best stuff came because I put it out for the world to see before I was ready. Turns out, they were closer to being ready than I had thought. What’s a few typos among friends?

There’s nothing like a deadline to get you crackin’. Once you announce or launch or publish, you’ve got a deadline. You’re committed. You’ve got to finish it, or fix it, and you do.

The alternative is to pay homage to your perfectionism and wait until everything is right. That’s how so many people die with their music in them.

The most important part of any project is getting started. Whatever it is you want to do, do it. Give yourself permission to do it badly. You can fix it later. You can make it better. Or you can cancel it start something else.

There is greatness in you. Slay the dragon and let your ideas soar.

For a simple marketing plan that really works, get this

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity, Writing Tagged With: , ,

If your law firm were a sports team

July 18, 2014 by
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Your clients want you to win. They are cheering for you and will celebrate with you when you win their case or favorably resolve their issue.

If you don’t win, they will be disappointed, but they will accept it, as long as you put up a good fight.

I’m sure you do your best for your clients. You advocate and argue and try every angle. You stay in shape mentally, so you can perform at your peak. You come in early and stay late, to prep for the game. You give your clients your best efforts.

But do your clients know this?

Do you let your clients know everything you do for them? Can they see your effort?

When a sports fan watches a game, they see the players in action. They see them execute strategy, take the shots, and suffer the blows. You need to show your clients no less.

That means documenting everything. It means explaining everything. It means putting everything you do in context, so they can see why you did it one way and not another.

Legal services aren’t like dry cleaning. The client doesn’t just drop off the clothing and pick it up when it’s done. Legal services involve important issues and great expense. When a client hires your law firm, they need to see what they are paying for and they are paying for your effort.

Your clients can live with the fact that you didn’t score the goal. But they have to see you take the shot.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Law office management

The Better Business Bureau for lawyers: what are the benefits?

July 14, 2014 by
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What are the benefits of the Better Business Bureau for lawyers? More than anything: trust. Being able to say that you are a member in good standing of the BBB tells clients and prospective clients (and those who might refer them) that you are one of the good guys.

Being accredited by the BBB allows you to post their badge on your website and in your office, and use it in your advertising. If that makes even one prospective client choose you instead of another attorney, it will be well worth it.

To prospective clients, lawyers’ ads and websites all look pretty much the same. Clients look for anything that can distinguish you from your competition in even the smallest way. BBB membership could be just the thing that tips the balance in your favor.

Being a member also gives you verisimilitude when you talk and write about the subject of trust. As a member of the BBB, you are holding yourself accountable by aligning yourself with an organization that encourages feedback from the public.

The BBB doesn’t rate you in the same way that Martindale or AVVO might. An A+ rating from the BBB is easier to achieve than A-V, however, and more people are familiar with the BBB.

There are additional benefits to belonging, as this article points out. I wouldn’t count on getting any business through the directory or through these other methods, but you certainly might.

In a world that increasingly distrusts lawyers, anything you can do to foster trust is a good thing. Take a look at what your local BBB has to offer.

For more ways to build trust, get this

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Filed Under: Image, Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , ,

Send your clients to client school

July 7, 2014 by
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Wouldn’t it be great if there was such a thing as client school? A place where clients would learn about the law and procedure, so they would understand what’s going on with their case and not have to ask you so many questions.

They would also get schooled on how to work with you: how to help you do a better job for them, how to contact you, what to send you, what is expected of them, and what to avoid. Client school would teach them about other services you offer and how they can benefit. They could learn about fees and billing, costs and retainers, and everything else a client needs to know.

No client school would be compete without a course on how to provide referrals. Clients would learn why sending you referrals helps them (i.e., it keeps your marketing costs low and you can pass the saving onto them, you don’t have to spend as much time marketing so you can give your clients more attention, etc.) and how it helps the people they refer (i.e., they get high quality help, they don’t have to spend time finding someone, they don’t take a risk of making a bad choice, etc.)

They would then learn what to do to make the referrals, i.e., what to say to their referrals, and/or what to email them or what page to send them to.

Client school would be great, wouldn’t it? Fewer questions, happier clients, more referrals.

So, why not start one?

All you have to do is put all of this information in writing, or record videos, and post everything on your website. You can put some or all of it in a password protected “clients only” area, or make it public so prospective clients can see all that you do for your clients. You can print transcripts and mail these to clients who prefer this, or put everything on DVD’s and give them to every new client.

You could have some of your staff record a video or two. Directions, where to park, office hours, and so on, or more substantive matters. They could do a walking tour of your office, or demonstrate the process for opening a new file. If appropriate, ask some articulate clients to record something.

More ideas? How about quizzes and a diploma for those who take all of the classes? How about things for kids, like legally themed pictures they can print and color, word search, crosswords, and so on?

Start with basic information. Add what you already have: articles, blog posts, recorded webinars or speeches, forms and checklists, reports and ebooks. Then, make a list of other areas you want to cover. Record one or two five minute videos each week. Don’t get fancy. Just talk into your webcam. Or put up a few slides and narrate them.

If you make some or all of this public, every time you do an update, notify your email list and your social media followers.

So, what do you think? Would you give this idea a passing grade?

For more ideas for your website, get this

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Law office management, Online Marketing, Social media marketing

Striking a balance between accessibility and availability

July 3, 2014 by
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At one extreme are lawyers who are always available. They give out their cell phone number to everyone, answer their own phone, and respond almost immediately to email. There is no buffer between them and the world.

At the other extreme are lawyers who are hard to reach and hardly ever available. Clients and prospects speak to intermediaries. If they want to speak with the lawyer, they make an appointment and it might be days or weeks before that takes place.

Always being available is neither good posture, nor a good way to value and manage your time. If you are always reachable, people will start to expect it. You don’t make your schedule, others do.  It doesn’t allow you to focus on the most important people and tasks in front of you. And, if people can’t reach you when they want to, as they have come to expect, you will have disappointed them.

Some lawyers can (and do) successfully maintain the other extreme. They are very difficult to reach and are thus seen as successful and desirable. Not everyone can pick up the phone and speak to Donald Trump whenever they want to. You have to pass through the gauntlet before you get an audience with The Donald.

It takes the right practice area and clientele to pull this off, however, as well as a high degree of confidence. If you are inclined towards this position, do you establish these guidelines first, before you are busy and successful, or do you evolve into this persona when you’ve got the chops to prove it? Tough call.

For most lawyers, it’s probably best to strike a balance between availability and accessibility. Be reasonably accessible but not always available. Don’t give out your cell phone number to everyone, reserve that for your inner circle or perhaps also for your best clients. Don’t make people wait weeks to see you, but don’t tell them they can see you “any time this week”. (Give them a couple of open time slots later in the week.) Don’t ignore messages or turn everything over to intermediaries. Return messages in a reasonably timely manner.

Show people that you are accessible but that you value your time and are busy doing important work. Unless it is an emergency, they need to accommodate your schedule, and they may need to speak to someone else before they can speak to you.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Client relations, Image, Law office management, Productivity

Is it unethical for lawyers to use ghostwritten blog posts?

June 30, 2014 by
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Kevin O’Keefe says that ghostwritten blog posts are unethical for lawyers. Unlike legal briefs or other work a lawyer may have penned by others, blogs are considered a form of advertising. If you say you wrote the piece but you didn’t, you are guilty of misrepresentation.

O’Keefe says that clients rely on blog posts to choose attorneys. “The ghost-written post may be better written, funnier, or just plain different than the attorney’s own work product. Even worse, the post may have a completely different perspective or contain better ideas than what the attorney is capable of.”

Basically, clients might hire you because you made them believe you are a better lawyer than you really are.

I have a question. What if you’re a great writer but a mediocre lawyer? Don’t your blog posts misrepresent your abilities? Should we tell average lawyers who write well to dumb down their writing, lest they entice unsuspecting clients to hire them under false pretenses?

How about lawyers who are better at public speaking than they are in the courtroom. Doesn’t their speaking ability give people a false impression of their lawyering skills?

While we’re at it, should we also charge lawyers with misrepresentation if they wear a hairpiece, makeup, or an expensive suit? Won’t prospective clients think they are better looking (and thus more effective) or more successful than they really are?

Just out of law school? Better not have nice office furniture. Clients may think you have more experience than you do.

Are clients so stupid and helpless that we have to protect them against every possible harm? By attempting to do so, don’t we make it more likely that someone will get hurt because people rely on the government to protect them and stop thinking for themselves?

I realize lawyers are held to a higher standard, but what part of arms length transaction is unclear? When did caveat emptor become bad advice?

Anyway, if people who can take away our licenses say we mustn’t say we wrote blog posts we didn’t write, we probably shouldn’t ignore it.

Are there any loopholes?

Can you use ghostwritten material without any byline? If you add the name of the ghostwriter to the byline will that do the trick? How about a disclaimer that the article wasn’t written by you but is posted with your approval?

I don’t know if any of this will suffice to stave off the wolves, but I have another idea.

See, I don’t recommend using “canned” articles or hiring a ghostwriter to write you blog, but not because they may cause harm. I’m against them because they aren’t very good.

Canned articles are usually generic and simplistic. Lifeless and boring. They don’t reflect the real life experiences or opinions of the attorney, and thus, aren’t effective at connecting with readers or persuading them to choose the lawyer who posts them over anyone else.

All this huffing and puffing about how ghostwritten articles get clients to hire lawyers under false pretenses is much ado about nothing. If anything, they usually do the opposite.

Ironic, isn’t it? You post canned articles, thinking clients will be impressed and choose you, but they yawn and look elsewhere instead.

The system polices itself. Imagine that.

On the other hand, ghostwritten material may still be useful by giving  you a place to start.

Re-write the ghostwritten article. Put it in your own words and add your own examples and stories.

Problem solved. The final piece will be more interesting and engaging than the original, and you can honestly say that you wrote it.

Just make sure it’s not too good, or that your head shot isn’t too flattering. The bar police are watching.

Want to get better at writing blog posts? This is what you need.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Law office management, Legal industry, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Writing Tagged With: , ,

5 critical skills to teach yourself before opening your own law office

June 27, 2014 by
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Reasonable minds may differ, but rarely do they differ so completely.

Exhibit A is this article: 5 critical skills to teach yourself before starting your first business. The skills, along with my comments:

1. Daily routine

I wouldn’t classify this as a skill. More like a habit. Quibbling aside, should this really be number one on the list of “critical” skills to teach yourself “before” starting your first business? Valuable? Yes. Critical? Not really. Could you develop this habit after you start your business? Um, yes you could. But then, reasonable minds may differ.

2. Email management (etiquette, productivity, security)

Okay, you haven’t opened your business, so you’ve got no emails to worry about. Are these skills going to bring in business? Help you get financing? Or do anything else a new business owner needs to survive and thrive? And couldn’t you just read an article or two to learn what you need to know and do?

3. HTML and CSS

Seriously?

I run a business. I know basic HTML (very basic) and nothing about CSS. I certainly didn’t need to learn anything before opening shop. I could make the case that this knowledge is even less important today, in view of WYSIWYG options like WordPress.

4. Marketing and Promotion

Finally, something we can agree on. Sort of. Marketing is a critical skill (a set of critical skills, actually), but you learn marketing mostly by doing it. Reading about it (or taking classes) doesn’t provide real world context.

In the real world, you learn an idea, you try it and see how it works. You adjust, make changes or try something different. You develop your skills by taking to real people. You learn by making mistakes.

In my humble (but accurate) opinion, you will learn more about marketing in a month of running your business than you will  in four years of college.

5. Data Analytics (Google, social media metrics)

Seriously?

Again, helpful, but not critical. And something you can learn as you grow. By the way, I can’t remember the last time I checked my stats. Just sayin.

Okay, what do you think about the author’s choices of critical skills?

What’s that? You want to see my list? Well, I have a different take on the whole subject.

I think that what’s needed before opening a business or a law office aren’t skills so much as values and attributes. Things like guts and persistence, the desire to change the world, a love of problem solving, and a passion for what you’re doing. That, and a big pile of cash, so you have time to learn and make mistakes.

I don’t think there any critical skills needed before opening your own law office. But if you want to be successful, here are 5 critical skills you should develop as soon as you can:

1. Salesmanship

Lawyers sell clients on hiring us, judges and juries on finding for us, and opposing parties on settling with us. There’s probably no more valuable skill for a professional or business owner than the ability to communicate ideas and persuade people to act on them. But like marketing, this is best learned in the act of doing.

2. Writing

If you’re not a good writer, you need to become one. You can read and take classes, (hint: study copy writing) but you have to apply what you learn. Write every day. In a year, you can become a good writer.

3. Networking

Arguably the most valuable marketing skill for professionals.

4. Leadership

Leadership is a skill and it can be learned. And it should be. If you have employees, or intend to, if you want to become a leader in your community or organization, study leadership, and start applying what you learn.

5. Touch typing

In terms of every day productivity, this is the skill that that I would put at the top of the list. And hey, it is something you can learn before opening your own law office.

That’s my list and I’m sticking to it. So there.

The formula for marketing legal services.

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Filed Under: Copywriting, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Networking, Productivity

20 hours a week marketing your law practice?

May 28, 2014 by
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Email provider Constant Contact conducted a survey of 1,300 small business owners. They found that, “A small business owner — along with another employee — will spend an average of 20 hours per week on marketing.”

Does this sound like a lot?

The business owners weren’t selected at random. They were part of the company’s “Small Biz Council,” which suggests they weren’t your average small business because (a) they use email marketing, and (b) they are part of a “Small Biz Council”.

Before you read further, how would you answer this question? How many hours per week do you spend marketing your law practice?

Your answer will depend on how you define marketing.

If you believe that “marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients,” as I do, you will realize that marketing is deeply baked into our daily activities. It’s not something we put on our calendars and “do” once a week, we do it all day long.

Take client relations, for example. If you spend ten hours a week speaking with, or writing to clients, all of the little things you say and do (and avoid saying and doing) count as marketing. How you greet them–your smile, your handshake, offering them something to drink, cleaning up your desk before escorting them into your private office–it all counts.

Now how about the time you spend writing blog posts, articles, and newsletters, and time spent speaking and networking (including on social media)? You can also count the time you spend reading things you can use in your writing or in conversation with clients and prospects and referral sources.

You’re reading this post right now, either in your email or on my blog.  In my book, time spent learning about marketing counts as marketing.

Are you adding this up?

Don’t forget the time you spend communicating with staff or outside vendors about your website, advertising, PR, or content creation.

Are you on any committees? Do you do any charitable work? The time you spend at meetings or playing in charity golf tournaments is at least partially marketing related since you are building relationships with people who can send you business or otherwise further your career.

So, you spend a lot more time on marketing than you thought. Now that you are aware of this, you can consciously improve your marketing.

The next time you meet with a client, think about how you can improve their experience. What else can you do or say? What can you give them?

Look at everything you do throughout your day and think about how you can do it better, faster, or more effectively. Because marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients.

Want to get better at marketing your law practice? Here’s what you need.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

Marketing legal services like a bookkeeper

May 6, 2014 by
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Bookkeepers aren’t usually known for their prowess in marketing legal services, but if you put them in charge of marketing for your firm, they’d probably advise you to do something like the following:

STEP ONE

Make a list of your “best” clients over the last two years. These are the ones who pay you the biggest fees, give you the most business, and other factors (e.g., provide the most referrals, most enjoyable to work with).

STEP TWO

Write down a few details about each client. For business clients, record their industry, size (revenue, employees, units), etc.; for consumers, record their occupation, age group, and other demographic factors. Also note the client’s “presenting problem,” i.e., legal issue or objective they first approached you about.

STEP THREE

For each client, note how they found you (or you found them):

  • Referrals: From whom? Client? Professional? How did I meet that person? What prompted the referral?
  • Internet search: What keywords? What landing page? (Note, start tracking this going forward)
  • Internet other: What article, site, or page did they come to your site from? (Start tracking this, too)
  • Social media: Which platform? Which post/tweet, etc? Who re-posted/tweeted/recommended?
  • Networking: Which group? Who introduced you? What did you say, do, offer? What did they ask you?
  • Ad: Which publication? Which ad? Was it the first time they had seen it?
  • Other: Speaking, articles, etc.

If you don’t know the answers, ask the client, and update your systems to start tracking this data in the future.

STEP FOUR

Based on this information, think about what you can do to get more clients like your best clients. If most of them are coming from referrals from other professionals, think about how you can strengthen your relationship with those professionals and how you can reciprocate. If you’re getting a lot of referrals from certain clients, reach out to them to thank them and look for other ways you can help them outside of your legal services.

How much business are you getting from ads, speaking, or social media? If not much, cut down on or eliminate time and money in those areas. If you do get good clients from these efforts, do more of these.

Now that you’ve identified your “best” clients, speak to them and find out more about them. What groups do they belong to and network at? What publications do they regularly read? Where are they active in their industry or community? The more you know about them, the more you can focus on activities that may help you identify and attract clients who are similar to them.

Ask your best clients to identify other professionals they work with and ask them to introduce you. Contact those professionals, let them know you have a mutual client, invite them to coffee.

Your bookkeeper would tell you to identify things that have worked best for you in the past so you can do more of them. She would also tell you to reduce or eliminate those things that have not worked well for you in the past.

The numbers tell the story.

Please say hello to your bookkeeper for me, and ask her if she would like to write a guest post for my blog.

Do you know The Formula? Go here now

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

Periodic maintenance on your law practice

April 29, 2014 by
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I was sitting in our backyard this morning, looking at the house we’ve lived in for the last twenty years. We’ve had to replace appliances, make repairs, and do regular maintenance inside and out, of course, and because we have, the house is still in very good shape.

A law practice also needs upkeep. Periodically, you need to take inventory, make repairs and upgrades, and improve your processes.

I jotted down some of the areas to consider in this partial checklist:

PEOPLE

  • Hire? Fire?
  • Training/certification
  • Updated info for HR
  • Build culture (retreats, days off, recognition)
  • CLE/Personal development

OFFICE/INFRASTRUCTURE

  • Furniture/fixtures (repair, replace, clean)
  • Computers/software (upgrade, backup, replace, new)
  • Re-negotiate/extend lease?
  • More space? Less? New location? Second office?
  • Off site/Cloud storage
  • Insurance
  • Supplies

PROCESS

  • Greeting clients
  • Intake (forms, procedure)
  • Closing files
  • Litigation
  • Archiving documents
  • Forms/checklists (update, new, purge, digitize)

MARKETING

  • Client relations/stay-in-touch
  • Professional relations/joint ventures
  • Website(s)/traffic
  • Reaching out methods (speaking, networking, advertising, social media, blogging, etc.)
  • Content marketing (blog, newsletter, articles, seminars, etc.)

Every practice is different. Use this as a starting point to create your own checklist. Then, calendar once or twice a year to review it and see what you might need to do. Some items, like office space, will need attention every few years. Others, like supplies and CLE and marketing, more often.

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Filed Under: Law office management
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